Abbas threatens Israel with ICC over frozen tax cash

Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, says he has returned funds from frozen tax revenues handed over by Israel because they amounted to only a third of the total owed.

Israel began withholding around a $130 million a month in tax and
customs revenues owed to the Palestinians in December in
retaliation for the Palestinians joining the International
Criminal Court (ICC).

Their accession to the ICC was finalized on April 1 and under
international pressure Israel agreed last week to resume the
money transfers.

It paid up $400 million but withheld about a third of the total
sum saying the Palestinians owed it for utilities such as
electricity.

“They said they were going to send the money and in the end
they did, but a third of it was deducted - why?” Mahmoud
Abbas said during a speech Sunday in the West Bank city of
Ramallah.

Abbas threatened to use their new membership and start legal
proceedings against the Israelis.

“We are returning the money. Either they give it to us in
full or we go to arbitration or to the court. We will not accept
anything else,” he said.

Under an agreement between Israel and Palestine signed in 1994,
Israel gives the Palestinian Authority (PA) millions of dollars
each month in return for customs duties raised on goods heading
for Palestinian markets that transit through Israeli ports.

Although Israel has stopped the payments before, it has never
done so for more than a couple of months except in 2006 when
Hamas won a huge victory in Palestinian elections.

The monthly funds from Israel account for around two-thirds of
the Palestinian budget, the rest being made up by foreign aid.
Blocking the funds also means that the PA cannot pay its 180,000
employees, which costs $200 million a month.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that Palestinian
cities in the occupied West Bank are almost completely reliant on
electricity supplied by Israel.